Down in Miami this week. I needed some facetime with my teammates from Mango Publishing and Teresa had some follow ups with her cardiologist. We hadn’t made any dinner plans Tuesday night and walked around downtown Coral Gables to see what appealed to us. We decided to check out the Cebada Rooftop Restaurant and Raw Bar. It’s still a bit too chilly to eat outside back in Tallahassee, so we decided to take advantage of our quick trip back to the tropics.
It’s an interesting space. Room tempo is very upbeat. Service was very attentive. The server described the menu as “Cuban Fusion”. We decided to get into the spirit and have mojitos. They have a house mojito made with passion fruit. We asked if they could make it “classic.” They tried but it came up a bit short.
The first dish we had was a Cuban take on the lobster roll. It is made with creamed corn, celery, serrano peppers, cilantro, and papitas. It was interesting, but I could see my Cuban wife thinking she would much rather be having a loaded roll from Woodman’s in Essex, MA. Next we had the Croqueta Fundido. This is made with chorizo cantimpalo, rotel dip and onion relish. It was delicious. We finished up with baby back ribs. These were made with a pimiento marmalade, peanuts, shallots, cherry peppers, and queso fresco. These were well-prepared. They were a little sweet, but also had some kick to them.
All in all, a relaxed, enjoyable evening. Food was a “B”, but would be a good place to hang out with a group.